contests contests contests

the picture has nothing to do with my post but did you know that famous phrase was coined at the university of florida, my alma mater? yeah, a kid in the audience heckling one of the accent program speakers uttered the phrase right before well, they tased him. anyhoo. gatorade and don't tase me bro.there you go.

what I'm wondering is how many people enter writing contests. I myself enter them. right now I'm in 5. lol. that seems like a bunch when I write it but there it is. mainly I enter for the critiques and the opportunity to get my work out there. one contest that I won got me a full submission with the awesome Claire Eddy at Tor. I've heard people say that writing contests were rip offs and wastes of time but I disagree. I'm just wondering about the rest of you out there. what do you think about writing contests?